Searching and aggregating web pages

ABSTRACT

Systems and/or methods for searching and aggregating internet web page updates. The system and/or method may further allow for customization of topics to update. Additionally, social media aspects of the system and/or method may allow for voting and commenting as well as sharing.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application claims priority from and is related toInternational application no. PCT/US13/49441 filed 5 Jul. 2013, whichclaims priority from U.S. provisional applications 61/668,976 filed 6Jul. 2012 and 61/693,222 filed 24 Aug. 2012, which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates to the field of digital computing or dataprocessing, which includes internet web pages, internet searching,search databases, and web page update aggregation.

BACKGROUND

Internet web pages are constantly updated with new news articles, newinformation, and new products for review by customers and users. Usersnow demand to view these constant updates and be kept abreast of thelatest information. Various attempts have been made at aggregating newsweb pages. Further RDF Site Summary (RSS) feeds allow for updates tousers in a blog type environment.

SUMMARY

The systems and methods described here include a method and system ofaggregating internet web pages comprising, at a server in communicationwith a database and a network, receiving a link to an internet webpage,categorizing the linked webpage based on the webpage content, in acategory webpage, causing display of a summary of the linked webpagewith summaries of other linked webpages in the same category, allowingusers to comment on the linked webpage, allowing users to vote on thelinked webpage, wherein the vote is included in a rating of the linkedwebpage, and causing display in the category webpage of at least one ofthe comments and the votes, in the summary of the linked webpage.

Some embodiments include methods and systems where the summary includesat least one of, from the linked webpage, representative portions oftext and representative photos. Certain embodiments include methodsand/or systems further comprising, at the server, causing display of ahome webpage, wherein the home webpage includes a link to the categoryweb page in a menu of category webpages. Some methods include, at theserver, allowing a user to log into the home page.

Some example methods and systems include the login via a third partywebpage. Some methods and systems include at the server, updating thethird party webpage with at least one of the logged in user comment andvote. Certain embodiments include, wherein the receiving of the webpagelink is from a user over the network. Some embodiments include, at theserver, awarding a user point to the logged-in user, based on at leastone of, the user comment, the user vote, user visits to a webpage, votesreceived for submitted links, comments received for submitted links,category creation, and social media links.

The disclosures here include methods including at the server, causingdisplay of advertising on the category page, based on at least one of,the category, a browsing history, a search query, and a server selectedadvertisement. And some embodiments include the receiving of the webpagelink from a search engine in communication with the server.

Certain embodiments disclosed here include at the search engine,searching the network for webpage content based on a category, andsending a link to the searched webpage to the server for display of asummary of the searched web page in a category page matching thecategory. Some embodiments include where the content includes text andphotos.

Some embodiments include, at the server, allowing a user over thenetwork to navigate among at least two category pages via a menu ofcategories. Some embodiments may include examples where the home pageincludes display of tiles, the tiles including the categories. Somemethods and systems include wherein the tiles are ordered according to,at least one of, rating, server defined order, user defined order, andtime of category update.

There are embodiments contemplated here that include methods and systemswherein the rating includes the user votes. Further, embodiments mayinclude wherein the category webpage is a news board including displayof at least one of, a title, a topic of the category, a menu of othernews boards, update information, and a button to order the display ofthe summaries. Some example embodiments may have the summary thatincludes an identifier of the user who submitted the link. In certainembodiments the summary is taken from at least one of, a Rich SiteSummary (RSS) feed of the linked webpage and text in the linked webpage.

In come embodiments disclosed here, the third party webpage is a socialmedia webpage. In some embodiments, the button is configured to allow auser to order the summaries by at least rating and recent update. Insome embodiments, at the server, de-duplicating links to web pages ifmore than one of the same links to a web page is received for acategory. Some embodiments have the update information that includes atleast one of the number of links updated during a given time.

Some embodiments here include wherein a link is a Uniform ResourceLocator (URL) to a webpage. Certain embodiments have the representativephoto is from at least one of, the linked webpage and a user selectedphoto. Certain example embodiments have the, allowing the users to vote,is via the social media website. In some embodiments, the allowing theusers to comment is via the social media website.

Certain embodiments include at the server, causing display of a userboard, wherein the user board includes at least one of user selectedsummaries and categories. Some embodiments include at the server,causing display of a user board, wherein the user board includes atleast one of, user selected summaries, categories, and a display ofsocial media friends. Some embodiments include wherein the user board isat least one of publically available and privately available limitedonly to the user's friends. Some embodiments here may have at theserver, causing display of a search box in the category page, allowingthe user to send a search query to the search engine via the search box,and causing display of the search results, based on the search query.And some examples include wherein the search query includes slashtags.

Some example embodiments here include a method and/or system ofaggregating internet web pages comprising, at a search engine, incommunication with a server, a database and a network, searching thenetwork for webpage content based on a category, locating at least onewebpage based on the category, sending a link to the located webpage, tothe server, at the server, analyzing the sent link to the internetwebpage, categorizing the linked webpage based on the webpage content,causing display of a summary of the linked webpage content withsummaries of other linked webpages in the same category.

Some embodiments include, at the server, allowing users to comment onthe linked webpage, and allowing users to vote on the linked webpage.And some embodiments have wherein the summary is derived from at leastone of, a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed of the linked webpage and text inthe linked webpage.

Certain example embodiments include via the server, allowing a user tolog into a homepage, the homepage configured to link users to categorypages, wherein the category pages include webpages with links andsummaries of webpages of the same category. And some have wherein the,allowing the users to vote, is via a social media website. Some exampleembodiments include wherein the allowing the users to comment is via asocial media website. Certain embodiments have wherein the log into isvia a social media webpage. Examples may also include, at the server,causing display of a user board, wherein the user board includes atleast one of user selected summaries and categories.

Certain embodiments here include a system and/or method for aggregatinginternet web pages comprising, a server in communication with a databaseand a network, the server configured to, receive a link to an internetwebpage, categorize the linked webpage based on the webpage content,cause display of a summary of the linked webpage with summaries of otherlinked webpages in the same category in a category webpage, allow usersto comment on the linked webpage, allow users to vote on the linkedwebpage, wherein the vote is included in a rating of the linked webpage,and cause display in the category webpage of at least one of thecomments and the votes, in the summary of the linked webpage.

Certain embodiments of the methods and systems here may include whereinthe summary includes at least one of, from the linked webpage,representative portions of text and representative photos. Someembodiments include wherein the server is further configured to, causedisplay of a home webpage, wherein the home webpage includes a link tothe category web page in a menu of category webpages. And someembodiments include wherein the server is further configured to, allow auser to log into the home page. Some embodiments disclosed here includewherein the login is via a third party webpage.

Some embodiments include wherein the server is further configured to,update the third party webpage with at least one of the logged in usercomment and vote. And some include wherein the received internet webpagelink is from a user over the network. Some embodiments include whereinthe server is further configured to, award a user point to the logged-inuser, based on at least one of, the user comment, the user vote, uservisits to a webpage, votes received for submitted links, commentsreceived for submitted links, category creation, and social media links.

Some embodiments here include wherein the server is further configuredto, cause display of advertising on the category page, based on at leastone of, the category, a browsing history, a search query, and a serverselected advertisement. Some embodiments include wherein the receivedinternet webpage link is from a search engine in communication with theserver. And some include wherein the search engine is further configuredto, search the network for webpage content based on a category, and senda link to the searched webpage to the server for display of a summary ofthe searched web page in a category page matching the category.

Some embodiments include wherein the content includes text and photos.And some have wherein the server is further configured to, allow a userover the network to navigate among at least two category pages via amenu of categories. Certain embodiments may have wherein the home pageincludes display of tiles, the tiles including the categories. Certainembodiments may have wherein the tiles are ordered according to, atleast one of, rating, server defined order, user defined order, and timeof category update. Some example embodiments may include wherein therating includes the user votes. And some may include wherein thecategory webpage is a news board including display of at least one of, atitle, a topic of the category, a menu of other news boards, updateinformation, and a button to order the display of the summaries.

Certain embodiment here may have wherein the summary includes anidentifier of the user who submitted the link. And some may includewherein the summary is taken from at least one of, a Rich Site Summary(RSS) feed of the linked webpage and text in the linked webpage. Someembodiments may have wherein the third party webpage is a social mediawebpage. And some may include wherein the button is configured to allowa user to order the summaries by at least rating and recent update.

Some embodiments may have wherein the server is further configured to,de-duplicate links to web pages if more than one of the same links to aweb page is received for a category. And some may have wherein theupdate information includes at least one of the number of links updatedduring a given time. Certain embodiments may have wherein a link is aUniform Resource Locator (URL) to a webpage. And some may includewherein the representative photo is from at least one of, the linkedwebpage and a user selected photo.

Certain embodiments may include wherein the, allow the users to vote, isvia the social media website. And some may include wherein the allow theusers to comment, is via the social media website. Certain embodimentsmay have the server further configured to cause display of a user board,wherein the user board includes at least one of user selected summariesand categories. Some may include the server further configured to, causedisplay of a user board, wherein the user board includes at least oneof, user selected summaries, categories, and a display of social mediafriends. And some may include wherein the user board is at least one ofpublically available and privately available limited only to the user'sfriends.

In certain embodiments, the system and/or method may include the serverfurther configured to, cause display of a search box in the categorypage, allow the user to send a search query to the search engine via thesearch box, and cause display of the search results, based on the searchquery. Some embodiments may have the search query include slashtags.

In some embodiments, a system for aggregating internet web pages maycomprise a search engine, in communication with a server, a database anda network, the search engine configured to, search the network forwebpage content based on a category using a slashtag query, locate atleast one webpage based on the category, send a link to the locatedwebpage, to the server, at the server, analyze the sent link to theinternet webpage, categorize the linked webpage based on the webpagecontent, cause display of a summary of the linked webpage content withsummaries of other linked webpages in the same category.

Certain embodiments may include the server further configured to, allowusers to comment on the linked webpage, and allow users to vote on thelinked webpage. Some embodiments may include the summary derived from atleast one of, a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed of the linked webpage andtext in the linked webpage. And some may include the server furtherconfigured to, allow a user to log into a homepage, the homepageconfigured to link users to category pages, wherein the category pagesinclude webpages with links and summaries of webpages of the samecategory.

Some embodiments may have the, allow the users to vote, via a socialmedia website. And some may have the allow the users to comment via asocial media website. Some embodiments may have the log into via asocial media webpage. And some may include the server further configuredto, cause display of a user board, wherein the user board includes atleast one of user selected summaries and categories.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the embodiments described in thisapplication, reference should be made to the Detailed Description below,in conjunction with the following drawings in which like referencenumerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the figures.

FIG. 1 is a drawing of an example screenshot depicting an example HomePage consistent with certain aspects related to the innovations herein.

FIG. 2 is a drawing of an example screenshot of an example News Boardconsistent with certain aspects related to the innovations herein.

FIG. 3 is a drawing of an example screenshot of an example ArticleSubmission page consistent with certain aspects related to theinnovations herein.

FIG. 4 is a drawing of an example screenshot of Vote/Comment on anArticle consistent with certain aspects related to the innovationsherein.

FIG. 5 is a drawing of an example screenshot of an example userNavigation consistent with certain aspects related to the innovationsherein.

FIG. 6 is a drawing of an example screenshot of an example User Boardpage consistent with certain aspects related to the innovations herein.

FIG. 7 is a drawing of an example screenshot of an example Search pageconsistent with certain aspects related to the innovations herein.

FIG. 8 is an example screenshot depicting an example of creation of anew board consistent with certain aspects related to the innovationsherein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments, examples of whichare illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following detaileddescription, numerous specific details are set forth in order to providea sufficient understanding of the subject matter presented herein. Butit will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the subjectmatter may be practiced without these specific details. Moreover, theparticular embodiments described herein are provided by way of exampleand should not be used to limit the scope of the inventions to theseparticular embodiments. In other instances, well-known data structures,timing protocols, software operations, procedures, and components havenot been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspectsof the embodiments here.

In summary, this disclosure relates to internet web page aggregationthat allows for updates to be displayed. The displays can includerepresentative Snippets of the articles and even representative photos.The aggregation can be done in an automated fashion, using searchalgorithms and popularity algorithms. Further, this application relatesto the ability for users to customize the updated information. Users mayalso vote or comment on articles. This allows for social media shareopportunities of the articles.

Home Page

FIG. 1 shows a screenshot example of a Home Page embodiment. The HomePage may be the initial screen that the system causes to be display to auser starting to use the system. The Home Page displays for users of thesystem, a tiled arrangement of images and associated titles. Theseimages and titles relate to various topics of which an underlying NewsBoard compiles links to articles and web pages that relate to theparticular topic.

After browsing the tiles, a user can then click through one to accessthe underlying News Board. For example, in FIG. 1, one of the Boards isentitled “Agent Apple,” 102. This board, when clicked by a user, takesthe user to the specific “Agent Apple” News Board, as shown as anexample in FIG. 2. The example tile “Agent Apple” deals with the topicof specific technology and technology news. Various other topics havetitles that also allude to their content as shown in the example grid ofsummary tiles 104. Some other examples shown in more detail in FIG. 2include “End Zone” for American football related information, “Stylista”for style and fashion content, and “GearheadZ” for automotiveinformation. Any topic could be used for these purposes and associatedNews Boards could be created to deal with any topic.

The decision of which representative News Board tiles to show on theHome Page could be based on a number of things. For instance, as anexample, the most popular Boards, as described below, may show up towardthe top of the page. Alternatively, Home Pages could be customizable.Users could customize their own Home Page after they sign in, asdiscussed later in this disclosure, to ensure particular subjects orBoards show up toward the top of that Home Page. Further, an editor ofthe system could decide which tiles to place toward the top of the HomePage. Any number of these or other options could be used for thispurpose.

The home page also shows the logged in user, in this case “Mike” 106.The system allows users to log into the system in order to customize thepages, to coordinate with third party websites such as social mediasites, and also for identifying for the user many features described inmore detail below.

The example home page screenshot also shows a title bar 108, whichallows users to navigate the system and learn more about the system.These example embodiments are described in more detail below.

News Board/Category Page

FIG. 2 is a screenshot example of a News Board webpage of one exampleembodiment here. For instance, in this example, if a user clicked the“Geekery” summary board from their home page, they would be taken tothis page, the actual News Board for this topic. The title of this NewsBoard is displayed at the top, here “Geekery” is that title 202 whichindicates that the Board's topic is technology and technology news.Every tiled link on the page would relate in some way to this topic, asthe category of this particular board. In this way, users can go tofewer pages to more read news and updates about topics and/or categoriesthat they are interested in.

The content of the articles or links is populated by the system in manyways including through a search engine such as blekko. In one exampleembodiment, the articles or links are pulled from [search terms/date]e.g. [lindsay lohan/date]. In another embodiment, the articles or linksare pulled from [/slashtag/date] e.g. [/gossip/date] may be used. In athird embodiment, [search terms/slashtag/date] e.g. [lindsaylohan/gossip/date] may be used.

In certain embodiments, the content of the articles or links ispopulated RSS feeds. These RSS feeds may be used in their totality, orarticles within the RSS feeds might be selected using keywords. Forexample, the system might populate the “Paris Hilton” board by takingthe RSS feed from the website celebuzz.com, and only selecting articleswhere the words “Paris Hilton” occur in some combination of the title ofthe article, the body of the article, or the initial section of thearticle.

In some embodiments, the content of the articles or links is populatedusing some combination of search engine feeds and/or RSS feeds.

The display of each tiled link can show multiple features on it. Forinstance, a “Snippet” of the article itself can be shown in a summarytile 204. This short summary may allow the user to read a short amountof the story or topic, in order to allow the user to best decide whichlinks to click through. In some example embodiments, images can bedisplayed in the summary tile, related to the topic of the link, orshown on the linked page, to aid the user's selection. This link/summarytile can also include an image and the information on the address of thelink, here, “webpronews.com,” (not pictured). Additionally, the user whosubmitted the link or article may be identified. In certain embodimentexamples a line such as, “By . . . ” may show the user who submitted anarticle or link. FIG. 2 shows “By Mike” 214, indicating a user namedMike submitted this article. If the system submitted it, it may beindicated so by showing “By ROCKZi,” for example. A vote may also becast using any number of ways, here shown by a “vote” button 216. Such abutton may allow a user, maybe only a logged in user, to indicate theiraffinity for an article, described in more detail below.

Snippets and/or summaries may be taken from RSS feeds or from theunderlying web page itself. Testing may occur to check for hostnames orknown bad text. The system may eliminate bolding of text, removal ofhost names and bad text as desired. For example, a Snippet wouldnormally remove “Login with Twitter” from a linked page because thisinformation does not help a user decide whether to click through to viewthe full link or not. It is merely useful on the underlying page. Thesystem can identify such phrases and keep them from inclusion on theSnippet.

The Top of the News Board shows multiple exemplary buttons for a user toimplement. Once such exemplary button is “Top” which is next to“Recent,” 240. This feature may allow users to toggle between whichlinks have been rated as the “top” links, as determined by the systemusing some calculation such as number of votes, (as described below) orsome other popularity metric, and which links have been updated mostrecently.

The “Recent” feature 240 relates to the display of tiled links that havebeen updated most recently. If selected, the system will update the NewsBoard as the underlying linked pages are updated. The older articleswill move down the News Board as they are time decayed and the newerarticles will populate the top of the News Board. In some embodiments,the blekko slashtag/date may be used to sort the most recent articlesfor display.

The “Top” feature 242 relates to voting, discussed later in thisdisclosure. By voting on links, other users can affect the display ofthose links on a particular News Board. Thus, by obtaining more votes, alink would move up the News Board toward the top, and gain exposure toyet more views. In this way, less popular links, gathering less votes,would move down the News Board and farther out of sight.

In some embodiments, the Top feature 242 may also be construed from acombination of recentness, or time based, and time decayed votes. In yetother embodiments, a Top ranking algorithm could give extra weight forsearch engine host ranks.

In certain embodiments, the News Board may even utilize a scroll bar(not pictured) to allow for many links to show up on one News Board, andby scrolling down from the top of the Board, a user can see links thatwere updated later than those towards the top.

Alternatively, instead of the tiled display, as shown in the exampleNews Board of FIG. 2, the links could be arranged in a list view. Thisexample shows on the top left of the tiles two options for display, atile arrangement and a listing arrangement 208. Other features orlayouts could be added to this list or taken away as desired.

Additionally, or alternatively, the system could be used to diversifythe News Board. This could be accomplished by posting the top articlesfrom different hosts. In this way, a good diverse mix of topics could bemaintained.

Links and articles could be “de-duplicated” in order to ensure thatsimilar information is not being repeated on a page. Also, the systemcould cluster articles. For example, the system could de-duplicate theAssociated Press wire feed or other shared articles.

The News Board may also feature, as shown in the example of FIG. 2, theinformation pertaining to the update information for the tiled links.Here, for example, this News Board shows 210 that within the last twohours, “111” links were updated and “475” in the last six hours.

This exemplary News Board of FIG. 2 also shows a “submit a link” button230 which will be discussed later in this disclosure.

This exemplary News Board of FIG. 2 also shows a search box 250 near thetop. This search box 250 may be used to search this particular NewsBoard or various News Boards on the system. This embodiment could belocated anywhere on the screen or in a popup window but is shown here asan example. This and other example embodiments will be discussed in moredetail later in this disclosure.

This exemplary News Board of FIG. 2 also shows user login informationnear the top. Here, “Mike” is the exemplary user 206. Signing in relatesto voting and commenting, a topic discussed later in this disclosure.

Other features on the exemplary News Board in FIG. 2 include information“About” the system 224. This feature could display information about thesystem, owner of the system, editor of the system or manager of thesystem. Also shown is a drop down menu 220 for selecting different“Boards.” This navigation of the system is also detailed below.

Social Media

This exemplary News Board of FIG. 2 also shows a “share” button at thetop 222. In this example, this “share” button shows a Facebook andTwitter logo but could show any number or type of social media logo,indicating a connection with a particular social media site. Thesebuttons allow users to access their established social networking sitesto “share” their votes and comments with those networks. In this way,the user can inform his or her followers of his or her latestactivities.

This social networking aspect could encompass any number of socialnetworking sites, run by third parties or some proprietary network.These could be in both mobile networks and conventional internetnetworks. Social networking sites are those that allow users to connectwith other users and share information and/or connect with them. Thiscan be in a “following” or “friend” type of arrangement where userssubscribe to certain users' feeds of updates and information. When thoseusers update information, it may be pushed to the followers or friendsin order for them to become informed of the latest activities of theactive user.

Social networking may allow for exponential exposure on a grass rootslevel of the internet. Instead of blasting a link to everyone, these“sharing” features may push links to only those users who have indicatedthat they want to receive updates and links from a certain user. Thus,they are more likely to pay attention and click through or read thelinks, because they are coming from a user whom they have pre-selectedand/or approved.

Some embodiments may include other third party networking sites such asLinkedIn or Flipboard. Through these sites, just as in Facebook orTwitter, users can tap into particular social media networks, shareinformation, and share updates from this system.

Some example embodiments may include updating information from web sitesthat are not necessarily news related. Although the Boards may be calledNews Boards, the information contained on the underlying links orarticles could be any number of things, and the “news” is just the newsof the updates to those pages. For instance, updates to shoppingwebsites could be used to populate a Board. If “shoes” is the Boardtopic, the system may search for all shopping websites that update forshoes, or show websites promoting lower prices or sales for shoes. Inthis way, users could simultaneously search for items on many multiplewebsites and find the latest and best deals. Another example may betravel updates for deals or sales. A Board called “Caribbean Travel” mayupdate not only bogs and news articles on the Caribbean but also travelagencies, car rentals and airline and cruise tickets to the Caribbean.

Further examples include Boards that update from web pages regardinghospital or health related entities, governmental regulatory topics,legal or statutory updates and changes.

Article or Link Submission

FIG. 3 is a screenshot example of a webpage allowing a user to Submit anArticle in one embodiment. This is shown in an example pop up window350, but could be displayed in any number of example positions on ascreen. The example here shows a text box 352 that may allow users toenter the text string of the webpage URL (uniform resource locator). Theexample embodiment shown also includes a “preview” button 354 which mayallow the user to preview the linked page. Users may access such exampleembodiment options by clicking on a “submit a link” button 356 on thecategory page/ News Board.

As mentioned above, when a user is logged on, they may be allowed tosubmit an article to a particular News Board or category page. Thesesubmitted articles or links may augment the system's population of linksor articles or replace them altogether if enough submissions arereceived.

Here, any user can read News Boards and links, but only users who haveregistered and logged in to the system may submit an article or link or,as will be described later, to vote or comment on an article or link. Itis through this login process, that the identity icon is shown on theweb page, here as an example, “Mike” with a submitted picture in the topcorner 306.

Logging on to a system such as this may allow certain embodiments to beincluded, over systems that do not require a login. Logging in requiresa user to register their credentials with the system before beingallowed certain privileges within the system. There may be averification step involved with this registration, which may requiresusers to submit an email address, for instance, and then reply to orclick through a special link that is sent to that email address. Thisregistration and verification process is usually successful at removingthe bulk spam type of users. These bulk spam users can degrade a systemwhich allows for user input to be displayed by pushing advertisements orlinks to nefarious web pages. Unchecked users are also harder to police,as will be discussed in the comments section later.

A login could be through a third party website such as a social networkincluding Facebook or Twitter, for example. In this way, this system,according to some embodiments, could utilize the verification ofidentity that these other social media sites use and avoid having tocoordinate the verification process itself. Also, using an existingsocial media site login may allow for linking to the social media feedsof each user. Yet another characteristic to using an existing socialmedia login may be that users are less likely to post inappropriate orspam messages in this system, because the activities will be echoed intheir own social media feeds and websites. Peer pressure can be amotivator for users to keep their posts and links appropriate.

Once logged in, a user may be allowed to submit a URL to a particularNews Board. This is accomplished through the “Submit a Link” button 356as discussed above, or could be accomplished through any number ofexemplary data entry boxes or fields.

Another way a user could submit a link is through the browser“bookmarklet” (not pictured) which is available on the site to belinked. Such an example bookmarklet may be, for example, a webpagebookmark stored in a web browser that contains JavaScript commands toextend the browser's functionality. For example, a bookmarklet may allowa user to select text on a page, click the bookmarklet, and be presentedwith a search engine results page for the search term selected.

Once identified, the system can use the http address information of thelink to create the tile Snippet and/or summary and representative image,if used. The system may do this by using any number of informationsources including, but not limited to, an RSS feed summary, provided bythe linked web page itself, or by using algorithms to pull together asummary for the article or update. Human editor intervention can also beused to create Snippets and/or summaries. Systems such as a searchengine crawler could be used to gather RSS feeds.

In some embodiments, the image may be pulled from the linked site andmay be resized in order to accommodate the News Board. In this way, alater user may then be presented with a short summary, but in image formand prose, of the linked information. In yet other embodiments, a userwho submitted an article or link may choose the image to display withthe Snippet and/or summary, if more than one image is available.

The image used in the article or link tile or list may require a minimumsize to display. It may have certain aspect ratio limits. The systemmay, in some embodiments, keep track of images to avoid repeating imageson a Board or Home Page.

The system can then do any number of things with this particularsubmitted link. It can decide whether to use it in other Boards that maypertain to the underlying topic. It may cache it for review purposes, inorder to weed out inappropriate links or spam or advertising. Anti-spamroutines can also be run on a submitted link. A test to ensure that thelinked URL is to an actual story or legitimate web page instead of to aspam or fraudulent web page or illicit topics such as pornography. Itmay also decide how and when to post the link, based on the status ofthe submitting user. For instance, an authorized user may have authorityto post links to a particular board, without any oversight. Other, forinstance, new users, may have to be vetted before their links post. Inthis way, the integrity of the Boards may be upheld with minimaloversight while allowing for updates to be posted as soon as possible.

Voting and Commenting

FIG. 4 is a screenshot example of an embodiment including a pageallowing a user to Vote and/or Comment on an Article. As discussedabove, for example, the system may be configured to allow only users wholog in are allowed to vote and/or comment on an article or link.

A Vote could be accomplished by clicking on a button on the link tile.This button could read “Vote,” “Rock It,” or any other kind of phrase.It could also show an icon that users know means a vote. In this way,users can reveal their appreciation or affinity for a particular link orstory. This vote is then passed through the users' social network, ifsuch a network is used to sign in. Negative or neutral votes could alsobe used alone or in conjunction with a positive vote as described above.

A Vote could also be done entirely within the social network confines.For instance, a “like” button in Facebook could be used to vote for astory or link in this system. In that way, integration into the socialnetwork is assured.

Boards may or may not include voting capabilities. Editors may wish todisplay links or articles based on other criteria and not want to allowvoting on a Board.

After clicking on the button, the system may cause display of a popupwindow 460 for example. Such a window may include any number of thingsassociated with voting and submitting comments including, in thisexample embodiment, a title of the article 462, the user'sidentification information, who submitted the article 472, a short textsummary of the article 474, a text box where the user may enter textcomments 464, a comment button 466 for submitting the comment, a loggedin user identifier 467, indicating the name of the logged in user underwhich the submitted comment will be posted, a button 468 allowing theuser to select a third party webpage to send the information through, inthis case, a link to the logged in user's Facebook account.

A Comment may be a way for a user to make a short notation about aparticular link or story. Again, logged in users may link their socialmedia accounts to echo their comments onto their social media feeds andposts. In this way, a user may simultaneously comment on a story for thebenefit of other users of this system, but also for the benefit of theirsocial media followers and friends as well.

In another embodiment, a user could elect to “Post” a link to theirassociated social media site, such as through the button 468 describedabove. A user may also merely post the link or story on a social mediasite without having to comment or vote at all.

A vote may be a way for logged in users to indicate their affinity for aparticular article, or their wish to see that article rise in thepopularity rankings Such a vote may be accomplished through a buttonsuch as the example vote button 470 shown here.

Other features of this kind could be utilized as well. FIG. 4 shows a“delete” 476 and “report bug” button 478 on the Vote/Comment page. Thesebuttons, or any other kind of buttons could link functionality from thissystem to the user's social media account.

Navigating

FIG. 5 is a screenshot example of a user's Navigation of the systemaccording to certain embodiments. The Navigation page may allow users tomove between and among different News Boards. In the example Navigationscreen, the “Boards” drop down menu 520 is displayed. This drop downmenu may allow a user to navigate to a different News Board by selectingany of the variously listed boards 530. This list may be populated inany number of ways including popular Boards by votes, or ones this userfrequents most often. Alternatively, the “Boards” drop down 520 may bepopulated by the editors of the page using any kind of criteria such aspopularity or featured links. The listing of boards could be throughtext as shown in the example 532, or could be any number of icons,summaries, photos, etc.

Navigation could be accomplished in a number of other ways, besides thedrop down “Boards” menu 520 from a News Board. For example, the HomePage may allow for navigation to any or all of the News Boards byclicking on the link tiles. By clicking on the title 532 of anotherBoard from the drop down menu, the system may cause the selected titledNews Board to be displayed to the user.

The Boards drop down is another way to do so. Still another way for auser to navigate the News Boards is through the search box 550 in thetop of the News Board as discussed in this disclosure.

The drop down box may be populated by any number of titles, and couldeven include a scroll feature (not pictured) to allow for many titles tobe displayed on any sized window or drop down menu.

User Boards

FIG. 6 is a screenshot example of a User Board page according to certainembodiments. A User Board may be similar to a News Board in appearancein that the links or articles are caused to be displayed in a tiledfashion for the user to select. The same or similar Snippets/Summariesand exemplary images can be used and created by the system as describedabove.

Certain differences between the News Board and the User Board may bethat a User Board may be customized by a user for a particular purposeand/or desire. A News Board may display either the “Top” or “Recent”links or articles dealing with a particular topic. The User Board may bepopulated according to the logged in user preference. Thus, when a userlogs in, that user may choose to view his or her own selection oftopics. The user may select specific topics, or broad genres of topicsto include on his or her Board.

Users may also customize the Snippets and/or images used to display withthe appropriate link or article. In this way, users can become editorsof not only the content of the overall Board, but of each tiled displayas well.

The top of the example User Board here shows the owner or editor of theboard, the user who has customized it 640. Here, “Mike” is shown as anicon pulled from a social network used to log in. The icon could comefrom any number of places such as an upload to this system itself or asocial network page or other site. The identification information couldbe located anywhere on the page, but here it is shown on the top center.Inside the box, besides his name, the identification shows which topthree topics the user has chosen for his or her User Board 642. Here,the example shows that “Mike Rockz at . . . ” and his top three topics,“Geekery,” “Blue State,” and “ParentZ” are shown 642. Within thosetopics, the icons show how many votes, comments and submissions havebeen added within those topics. These can be for either the particularuser, for global information or for a subset of users, such as theuser's friends or followers who use the system.

This example identification box also shows, for example, how many votes,comments and submissions this particular user has recently submitted646.

User Points

Alongside the User name and icon is a listing of “Karma Points,” 648.The name of the reward points could be anything, but the example here is“Karma Points” as an example. These points are points that may beawarded by the system to a particular user for various things, as a formof “gamification” of the system. Examples include time spent on thewebsite, for commenting or voting on links or articles, for submittingURLs, for receiving votes or comments on your submissions, for receivingvotes or comments on articles or links you have commented on or votedon, adding friends, for editing Boards, for amassing click outs, forcreating Boards, for allowing actions to be posted to social networks orany number of other things as motivation to users. When bookmarklets areused to submit, clock outs add points as well.

In certain example embodiments, users can amass Karma Points in order togain access to special features. Editors of Boards may be required tohave a certain number of points. Or the number of User Boards may betied to thresholds of points. Rewards of other kinds such as directmails or email promotions may also be used for point thresholds. Goalsand special features can further incentivize use.

In certain embodiments, the system can then show leader boards of userswith Karma Points. These can be broken down by topic or global or subgroup. These leader boards will help incentivize system use. Leaders maybe assigned titles such as “ROCKZi Star” or “Top Rock” in order to addclout to their status. An icon may appear next to their identificationimage or a boarder or icon may be presented on their User Boards toattract attention.

Social Media in User Boards

Another possible example feature shown on the User Board in FIG. 6 isthe “Friends” section 644. This indicates, by showing the icons from thelogged in social network, such as Facebook here, which of the user'sfriends are also using this system. The page can also display what auser's friends are doing on the system itself. A user can learn whichtopics and News Boards his friends are interested in, for example. Thesystem can use this networked information to improve search results, forexample. It can be used to invite people to become editors of particularpages, for example. It can be used to show categories that are popularby friend, friend group or sub group, for example. One such examplemight be: “What Krishna Rockz: . . . ” and lists the topics of interestfor Krishna. Or, “Ask your friend Nick . . . ” to become an editor of aBoard.

In some embodiments, celebrities and sponsored Boards can be used topromote particular topics. For instance, a celebrity with a Twittersocial media following may browse this system, submit an article or linkand comment on another. Those actions would them publish to thatCelebrity's Twitter account for all of his or her followers to view.Some embodiments allow celebrities or sponsors to create and edit theirown User Boards. In this way, the celebrity or sponsor may promoteparticular topics, stories, themes or advertising messages to any userwho views that Board.

Through the user's social media networks, the User Board can beautomatically populated based on what the user's friends or followersare posting and liking. This can be used for celebrities as well who arefollowed by many people or topical boards that gather followers simplybased on the content.

User Boards may be either public or private. A public Board is one inwhich any user of the system can view. A private board is one in whichonly designated logged in users can view. This list of designated userscould be, for example, only friends of the user who edits the Board or asubset of those friends, as determined through a social media site suchas Facebook. Commercial entities who sponsor a particular User Board maywish to limit the access of a board to only particular users, such as abeer company wishing to keep out users who are less than 21 years ofage. In this way, the social media profile of the user may provide thatage verification to a private board.

Searching

FIG. 7 is a screenshot example of a Search page embodiment. The searchfeature of this example is accomplished by typing in a search in thesearch box in the top right of the screen 750. This search could comefrom any number of search input systems, but here, in this example, asearch box with a magnifying glass is used.

The top of the Search page shows the search term 780 or terms used forthe search. In the example here, “lebron” was used as a search term, toreference LeBron James, the professional basketball player. Under thesearch term is the phrase “powered by blekko” in this exampleembodiment.

When a user types in a search, the system may search the internet fortopical articles and web pages. The results are displayed as eitherlists or tiles as described above. The search results in tile format mayshow what the other News Boards or User Boards show, for instance, anyor all of a Snippet summary, an example image, the address informationfor the link, and/or the name of the submitting user.

Also, the Home Page could even have a search box as well, although notdepicted in the example of FIG. 1.

The system utilized a search engine to search the web for articles orlinks that involve, mention and/or related to the search term. In thisexample embodiment, the search engine blekko is used, and mentioned atthe top of the page. Any number of search engines could be used for thisbut here, in this example, blekko is used for its slashtag capabilities.

The system here can help augment the blekko search engine slashtagsystem by submitting commonly used searches to the editors.Additionally, the information and data gathered from this system couldbe fed back into the blekko slashtag search engine. In this way,slashtags can be kept updated with news articles and topics that arebecoming popular on this system or are linked in this system. Theintegration of the systems could benefit each other as well. Forinstance, a slashtag such as “/rockzi” could show all links of thistopic that are popular on this system.

Advertising and Monetization

The addition of advertising could be used in any of the pages of thissystem. In that way, the advertisements can be placed anywhere on thescreen. They could be static advertisements or could be dynamicadvertisements that animate or move. They could pop up in a new browserwindow or stay within the browser window of the site.

The advertisements that could be placed on any of the pages of thissystem could be tailored to the topic of the page or News Board. Thus,tailored or targeted advertisements could reach audiences that are moreinterested in a particular topic. As an example, an ad for sportingequipment may not receive many click throughs when posted on a genericnews website. But that same sporting equipment advertisement may receivemany more click throughs if posted on a News Board in this system thathas a sports related topic. For example, a baseball bat advertisement ona News Board discussing professional baseball would target fans whoalready presumably enjoy watching and/or playing baseball.

The advertisements could also be selected based on the web page browsinghistory of the user, whether logged in or not.

Advertisements may cost more depending on the popularity of a particularNews Board. A popular News Board means that it necessarily receives moreviews, more votes, more comments, and more link or article submissions.The more attention a Board gets, the more ad revenue it can generate.

Internal advertising could be utilized in certain embodiments. Forexample, related Boards could be established to cross promote oneanother. For example, the “Red State Board” may advertise the “BlueState Board,” or, a baseball Board may promote and advertise for asoftball Board to increase readership between and among Boards.

Further, in certain embodiments, promotion of Boards on a search enginecould increase visibility and viewership to the system. For example, ifa user runs a search on a search engine, such as blekko, and that searchreturns a certain number of results that have RSS feeds associated withthem, advertisements could be placed on the results page for Boards thatare associated with the topic of the search. In this way, regular searchengine searches could result in targeted advertisements for particularBoards.

In some embodiments, advertising could be placed on search engineresults pages if a search on a search engine results in a certain numberof RSS feeds which are related to or correspond to a single Board.

Excerpts from U.S. Application 2012/0150844

To further help explain the certain embodiments here, the followingparagraphs were copied from U.S. application Ser. No. 13/328,500, U.S.publication 2012/0150844 regarding “slashtags.” This will help explainthe present embodiments as slashtag search engines maybe used to searchfor links and articles here. This embodiment is not limited to usingsuch a search engine but is used in the examples disclosed here.

This disclosure relates to a method for requesting a search query to bedisplayed in a web browser. The method comprises receiving one or moresearch terms and a slash operator selected from a plurality of slashoperators, and generating a search result based on the one or moresearch terms and the slash operator.

The method further comprises generating the search result comprisesproviding a search result list that organizes content based on the oneor more search terms that are within the category determined by theslash operator. The plurality of slash operators comprises mainstreamoperators, content operators, facet operators, URL operators, and listoperators.

Finally, the method further comprises utilizing pre-intersect commonfilters when generating the search result.

In some embodiments, another category of operators include listoperators.

TABLE 4 Operator Contents Name Data Type Example Query huffpohttp://huffingtonpost.com/ distance-1 Barack Obama/huffpo techmemehttp://techmeme.com/ distance-1 Barack Obama/techmeme failhttp://failblog.org/ domain Barack name Obama/failhttp://shipmentoffail.com/ domain name http://screwups.com/fail pathprefix

These list operators are driven by a list containing types of contentincluding, but not limited to, domain names (google.com), URL pathprefixes (espn.com/nfl, which would match both espn.com/nfl/team1 andespn.com/nfllteam2), and individual URLs. In addition, a list operatormight include other list operators, or use special query operators,facet operators, or URL operators to add to or subtract from the listoperator.

In addition to the above, an element of the list might include both theelement on the list, and all webpages which are distance-N away on thegraph of web pages. For example, distance-I from techcrunch.org wouldcontain all pages at the website techcrunch.org plus every webpagepointed to by any page at techcrunch.org.

For example, the /huffpo list operator initiates a search of all pagesin the index which are at or linked (distance-1) from any webpage at thedomain huffingtonpost.com. To illustrate, if a user enters a searchquery “Barack Obama/huffpo”, and a webpage at huffingtonpost.com links apage at the NY Times, that page at the NY Times may be returned as partof the answer.

These user-edited operators exist in multiple types. One type is usableby anyone and editable by anyone. For example, global list operators areeditable and useable by everyone. Another type is usable by its creatorand only edited by its creator. Other types include operators which canbe used by their creator and friends, or edited by the creator andfriends. And all combinations of the above. Users editing these listoperators might create or delete entire operators, or might add ordelete from the lists of domain names, and so on, contained in anoperator.

In order for multiple users to have operators with the same name,without colliding, a “namespace” is used to name operators. The name/greg/linux is used to indicate a /linux operator which is specific tothe user Greg. This operator is different from the global /linuxoperator.

Social methods are used to aid discovery of operators for users. Forexample, if user 1 has used several of user2's operators in the past,the engine is more likely to suggest yet another of user2's operators asa possibly useful operator.

In addition to using operators in a positive fashion (e.g. /linux),operators can also be used in a negative fashion (e.g. !/linux). Thisdeletes all results from the query which match the /linux operator. Inanother example, “/linux !/blogs” would return all results which matchedthe /linux operator and did not match the /blogs operator.

In addition to negating whole operators, a list operator might contain anegative entry, which deletes any matching webpage from the results. Asan example, if all NY Times opinion information was belowhttp://nytimes.com/opinion, a user might add nytimes.com and thenegation of nytimes. com/opinion to her tag /newsonly.

Negative entries in list operators can also be marked to apply only incertain contexts. Consider the list operator /linux, which contain thewebsite /kml.org, which hosts the high-volume Linux Kernel Mailing List(LKML). The query “/linux /date” would then be dominated by LKMLpostings, drowning out all else. In this case, a user may add a negativeentry for /kml.org that only applies when the results are sorted bydate, such as when the ldate operator is used. Then “/linuxldate” wouldcontain topical information about Linux without being drowned out byLKML postings.

Slashtags

As an example of the productive use of several of these featurestogether, assume that a user want to add to the /linux list operator.The user may do a search for [linux /!linux], i.e. a page that appearsin the results for a search on [/inux] which is not already included inthe /linux list operator. The user may then select some URLs which theuser believes would look good as a part of /linux, click on the“slashtags” button for each, view the existing tags for each selectedURL, and finally add the /linux list operator to the list of operatorscontaining each selected URL.

As an example of list operators changing the meaning of a query,consider the facet operator /news and the list operator /golf, whichcontain multiple golfing websites. A search for [Tiger Woods /news]likely return a large number of hits for Mr. Woods' personal life, whilea search for [Tiger Woods /golf] likely returns many more hits for TigerWoods' golf career.

In some embodiments, list operators can be collaboratively edited bymultiple end-users, perhaps aided by an employee community manager. Insome embodiments, social feedback is used to aid the process ofselecting edits which are actually applied to the user-specifiedoperator, i.e. editors are enabled to see that User Foo has had 9 of itslast 10 edits rejected, or that User Foo tends to vote against theopinions of more trusted editors.

In some embodiments, a professional ‘community manager’ helps selectwhich edits are allowed, and referees debates among end-users. In someembodiments, a hierarchy of volunteer and professional community mangersperforms these functions. Discussion forums are created to discuss editsof each list operator. A history feature allows exploring the history ofparticular domain names or URL paths.

Pre-Intersect Lists

In some embodiments, pre-intersect common filters (not shown) areutilized by a respective search operation for greater speed or depth.The web index of the search database stores many lists for particularsearch terms. For example, in a list of webpages containing the word“Greg,” each list is ordered according to the relevance of the webpageto the word “Greg.” These lists are cut off at a fixed limit, so (e.g.)only the top 10,000 webpages mentioning the word “Greg” are in the list.

When an answer to a query is requested, such as “Greg /blogs” (blogpostings mentioning the word Greg), a naive way to compute this would beto look at the list of webpages for the word Greg, and see which ones wehave labeled as blog postings. If the blog postings mentioning Greg arerare compared to mentions of Greg, there may be no blog postings aboutGreg in the Greg list.

To give a better answer in this circumstance, a list for “Greg” isgenerated containing the top N webpages mentioning “Greg” and alsohaving the property of being “/blog.” Many of such lists are generated,one for each /operator to provide a better answer.

Creating new “Boards”

Users and administrators can create new “boards”. This creation optionmay be offered as a button available at all times, and/or after asuccessful or unsuccessful search for a “board”.

Using keywords provided by the user, a list of potential informationsources may be presented by the system. These potential informationsources include RSS feeds on websites, found by searching in a searchengine such as blekko.com, and/or RSS feeds emitted by a search enginesuch as blekko.com, using search engine features such as date sorting,date ranges, and slashtags. The user may then accept, reject, and/ormodify these information sources, and potentially add additional ones.

FIG. 8 is one example embodiment of a dialog presented to the usercreating the board. On the right 0801 is a list of potential informationsources, with an “x” UI element used to delete a source. On the leftbottom, 0802 is a preview of the initial contents of the board, giventhe potential information sources currently being considered by theuser.

CONCLUSION

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments and its practical applications, to therebyenable others skilled in the art to best utilize the embodiments andvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

It should be noted that the terms “site” and “page” in reference to anInternet website or webpage are interchangeable and mean the same thing.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments and its practical applications, to therebyenable others skilled in the art to best utilize the embodiments andvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

As disclosed herein, features consistent with the present embodimentsmay be implemented via computer-hardware, software and/or firmware. Forexample, the systems and methods disclosed herein may be embodied invarious forms including, for example, a data processor, such as acomputer that also includes a database, digital electronic circuitry,firmware, software, computer networks, servers, or in combinations ofthem. Further, while some of the disclosed implementations describespecific hardware components, systems and methods consistent with theinnovations herein may be implemented with any combination of hardware,software and/or firmware. Moreover, the above-noted features and otheraspects and principles of the innovations herein may be implemented invarious environments. Such environments and related applications may bespecially constructed for performing the various routines, processesand/or operations according to the embodiments or they may include ageneral-purpose computer or computing platform selectively activated orreconfigured by code to provide the necessary functionality. Theprocesses disclosed herein are not inherently related to any particularcomputer, network, architecture, environment, or other apparatus, andmay be implemented by a suitable combination of hardware, software,and/or firmware. For example, various general-purpose machines may beused with programs written in accordance with teachings of theembodiments, or it may be more convenient to construct a specializedapparatus or system to perform the required methods and techniques.

Aspects of the method and system described herein, such as the logic,may be implemented as functionality programmed into any of a variety ofcircuitry, including programmable logic devices (“PLDs”), such as fieldprogrammable gate arrays (“FPGAs”), programmable array logic (“PAL”)devices, electrically programmable logic and memory devices and standardcell-based devices, as well as application specific integrated circuits.Some other possibilities for implementing aspects include: memorydevices, microcontrollers with memory (such as EEPROM), embeddedmicroprocessors, firmware, software, etc. Furthermore, aspects may beembodied in microprocessors having software-based circuit emulation,discrete logic (sequential and combinatorial), custom devices, fuzzy(neural) logic, quantum devices, and hybrids of any of the above devicetypes. The underlying device technologies may be provided in a varietyof component types, e.g., metal-oxide semiconductor field-effecttransistor (“MOSFET”) technologies like complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor (“CMOS”), bipolar technologies like emitter-coupled logic(“ECL”), polymer technologies (e.g., silicon-conjugated polymer andmetal-conjugated polymer-metal structures), mixed analog and digital,and so on.

It should also be noted that the various logic and/or functionsdisclosed herein may be enabled using any number of combinations ofhardware, firmware, and/or as data and/or instructions embodied invarious machine-readable or computer-readable media, in terms of theirbehavioral, register transfer, logic component, and/or othercharacteristics. Computer-readable media in which such formatted dataand/or instructions may be embodied include, but are not limited to,non-volatile storage media in various forms (e.g., optical, magnetic orsemiconductor storage media) and carrier waves that may be used totransfer such formatted data and/or instructions through wireless,optical, or wired signaling media or any combination thereof. Examplesof transfers of such formatted data and/or instructions by carrier wavesinclude, but are not limited to, transfers (uploads, downloads, e-mail,etc.) over the Internet and/or other computer networks via one or moredata transfer protocols (e.g., HTTP, FTP, SMTP, and so on).

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in a sense of “including,but not limited to.” Words using the singular or plural number alsoinclude the plural or singular number respectively. Additionally, thewords “herein,” “hereunder,” “above,” “below,” and words of similarimport refer to this application as a whole and not to any particularportions of this application. When the word “or” is used in reference toa list of two or more items, that word covers all of the followinginterpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of theitems in the list and any combination of the items in the list.

Although certain presently preferred implementations of the embodimentshave been specifically described herein, it will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art to which the embodiments pertain that variations andmodifications of the various implementations shown and described hereinmay be made without departing from the spirit and scope of theembodiments here. Accordingly, it is intended that the embodiments belimited only to the extent required by the applicable rules of law.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments and their practical applications, tothereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the variousembodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particularuse contemplated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: at a server incommunication with a database and a network, receiving from a user alink to an internet webpage, via the network; analyzing, by the server,a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed of the internet webpage and text in ofthe internet webpage; categorizing, by the server, the internet webpageinto a predetermined category based on the RSS feed of the internetwebpage and the text in the internet webpage; creating, by the server, asummary of the internet webpage, utilizing the RSS feed of the internetwebpage and the text in the internet webpage; identifying, by theserver, an image from the internet webpage; resizing, by the server, theimage from the internet webpage to create a resized image; including, bythe server, the resized image in the summary of the internet webpage,upon determining that the resized image has a minimum size, meetspredetermined aspect ratio limits, and is not repeated within thepredetermined category; in a webpage associated with the predeterminedcategory, displaying, by the server, the summary of the internet webpagewith summaries of other internet webpages categorized into thepredetermined category; receiving from the user, at the server via thenetwork, a comment on the displayed internet webpage via the webpageassociated with the predetermined category; receiving from the user, atthe server via the network, a vote for the internet webpage, wherein thevote is included in a rating of the linked webpage; displaying, by theserver in the webpage associated with the predetermined category, thecomment and the vote, in the summary of the internet webpage; anddisplaying, by the server in a home page, a plurality of tilesrepresentative of the webpage associated with the predetermined categoryas well as webpages associated with additional predetermined categories,where the plurality of tiles are ordered according to the vote for theinternet webpage and a plurality of votes for additional internetwebpages in the webpage associated with the predetermined category andthe webpages associated with the additional predetermined categories. 2.The method of claim 1 wherein the summary of the internet webpageincludes a plurality of representative portions of text and a pluralityof representative photos, from the linked webpage.
 3. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising, at the server, causing display of a pageassociated with the user, including: a summary of each of apredetermined number of categories, where the summary of each of thepredetermined number of categories includes an indication of a number ofvotes, comments, and submissions within each category that are submittedby the predetermined user; a number of reward points accumulated by theuser for performing a plurality of actions including spending time on apredetermined website, commenting and voting on links or articles,submitting one or more links to internet webpages, receiving one or morevotes or comments on submitted links to internet webpages, and receivingone or more votes or comments on likes to internet webpages that havebeen commented on by the user; and an identification of a plurality offriends of the user that use a predetermined service, where each of theplurality of friends is represented by an icon retrieved from a socialnetwork.
 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising, at the server,allowing the user to log into the home page; and awarding a user pointto the user, based on at least one of, the user comment, the user vote,user visits to a webpage, votes received for submitted links, commentsreceived for submitted links, category creation, and social media links.5. The method of claim 1 wherein a manner in which the summary of theinternet webpage is displayed in the webpage associated with thepredetermined category, as well as a time that the internet webpage isdisplayed in the webpage associated with the predetermined category, isdetermined based on a status of the user.
 6. The method of claim 1,where the plurality of tiles are further ordered according to a timewhen each of the plurality of categories was updated.
 7. A system foraggregating internet web pages comprising: a hardware server incommunication with a database and a network, the server configured to:analyze, by the server, a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed of the internetwebpage and text in the internet webpage; categorize, by the server, theinternet webpage into a predetermined category based on the RSS feed ofthe internet webpage and the text in the internet webpage; create, bythe server, a summary of the internet webpage, utilizing the RSS feed ofthe internet webpage and the text in the internet webpage; identify, bythe server, an image from the internet webpage; resize, by the server,the image from the internet webpage to create a resized image; include,by the server, the resized image in the summary of the internet webpage,upon determining that the resized image has a minimum size, meetspredetermined aspect ratio limits, and is not repeated within thepredetermined category; in a webpage associated with the predeterminedcategory, display, by the server, the summary of the internet webpagewith summaries of other internet webpages categorized into thepredetermined category; receive from the user, at the server via thenetwork, a comment on the displayed internet webpage via the webpageassociated with the predetermined category; receive from the user, atthe server via the network, a vote for the internet webpage, wherein thevote is included in a rating of the linked webpage; display, by theserver in the webpage associated with the predetermined category, thecomment and the vote, in the summary of the internet webpage; anddisplay, by the server in a home page, a plurality of tilesrepresentative of the webpage associated with the predetermined categoryas well as webpages associated with additional predetermined categories,where the plurality of tiles are ordered according to the vote for theinternet webpage and a plurality of votes for additional internetwebpages in the webpage associated with the predetermined category andthe webpages associated with the additional predetermined categories. 8.The system of claim 7 wherein the summary of the internet webpageincludes a plurality of representative portions of text and a pluralityof representative photos, from the linked webpage.
 9. The system ofclaim 7 wherein the server is further configured to cause display of apage associated with the user, including: a summary of each of apredetermined number of categories, where the summary of each of thepredetermined number of categories includes an indication of a number ofvotes, comments, and submissions within each category that are submittedby the predetermined user; a number of reward points accumulated by theuser for performing a plurality of actions including spending time on apredetermined website, commenting and voting on links or articles,submitting one or more links to internet webpages, receiving one or morevotes or comments on submitted links to internet webpages, and receivingone or more votes or comments on likes to internet webpages that havebeen commented on by the user; and an identification of a plurality offriends of the user that use a predetermined service, where each of theplurality of friends is represented by an icon retrieved from a socialnetwork.
 10. The system of claim 7 wherein the server is furtherconfigured to: allow the user to log into the home page; and award auser point to the user, based on at least one of, the user comment, theuser vote, user visits to a webpage, votes received for submitted links,comments received for submitted links, category creation, and socialmedia links.
 11. The system of claim 7 wherein a manner in which thesummary of the internet webpage is displayed in the webpage associatedwith the predetermined category, as well as a time that the internetwebpage is displayed in the webpage associated with the predeterminedcategory, is determined based on a status of the user.
 12. The system ofclaim 7 wherein the server is further configured to, cause display of asearch box in the category page; allow the user to send a search queryto the search engine via the search box; and cause display of the searchresults, based on the search query.
 13. The system of claim 12 whereinthe search query includes slashtags.
 14. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions thereonfor a method of aggregating internet web pages, the method comprising:at a server in communication with a database and a network, receivingfrom a user a link to an internet webpage, via the network; analyzing,by the server, a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed of the internet webpageand text in the internet webpage; categorizing, by the server, theinternet webpage into a predetermined category based on the RSS feed ofthe internet webpage and the text in the internet webpage; creating, bythe server, a summary of the internet webpage, utilizing the RSS feed ofthe internet webpage and the text in the internet webpage; identifying,by the server, an image from the internet webpage; resizing, by theserver, the image from the internet webpage to create a resized image;including, by the server, the resized image in the summary of theinternet webpage, upon determining that the resized image has a minimumsize, meets predetermined aspect ratio limits, and is not repeatedwithin the predetermined category; in a webpage associated with thepredetermined category, displaying, by the server, the summary of theinternet webpage with summaries of other internet webpages categorizedinto the predetermined category; receiving from the user, at the servervia the network, a comment on the displayed internet webpage via thewebpage associated with the predetermined category; receiving from theuser, at the server via the network, a vote for the internet webpage,wherein the vote is included in a rating of the linked webpage;displaying, by the server in the webpage associated with thepredetermined category, the comment and the vote, in the summary of theinternet webpage; and displaying, by the server in a home page, aplurality of tiles representative of the webpage associated with thepredetermined category as well as webpages associated with additionalpredetermined categories, where the plurality of tiles are orderedaccording to the vote for the internet webpage and a plurality of votesfor additional internet webpages in the webpage associated with thepredetermined category and the webpages associated with the additionalpredetermined categories.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium having computer-executable instructions thereon for a method ofaggregating internet web pages of claim 14 wherein the summary of theinternet webpage includes a plurality of representative portions of textand a plurality of representative photos, from the linked webpage. 16.The non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executableinstructions thereon for a method of aggregating internet web pages ofclaim 14 further comprising, at the server, causing display of a pageassociated with the user, including: a summary of each of apredetermined number of categories, where the summary of each of thepredetermined number of categories includes an indication of a number ofvotes, comments, and submissions within each category that are submittedby the predetermined user; a number of reward points accumulated by theuser for performing a plurality of actions including spending time on apredetermined website, commenting and voting on links or articles,submitting one or more links to internet webpages, receiving one or morevotes or comments on submitted links to internet webpages, and receivingone or more votes or comments on likes to internet webpages that havebeen commented on by the user; and an identification of a plurality offriends of the user that use a predetermined service, where each of theplurality of friends is represented by an icon retrieved from a socialnetwork.